Bream, trevally hungryGary Brown | First Published: July 2010

The bream have been on the move over the past month, after they have gone through their spawning process.

Many anglers think that yellowfin bream spawn in the estuaries but they actually spawn off the beaches, rocks and close reefs.

A good way on knowing if bream are in spawning mode is that their pectoral, anal and caudal fins will take on a very yellow tinge.

So if you are going to target bream over the next month or so I would start looking around the shallow waters of Botany Bay and the sand and weed beds of Port Hacking.

The water in Botany Bay is still a little bit dirty after all the rain over the past month or so, but with some better tidal flushing it should start to clear up.

Silver trevally are around in great numbers and they’ve become bigger. A number of 1.5kg to 2kg fish have been caught in Botany Bay and Port Hacking and some well upstream.

In Botany Bay to try for them at The Sticks, the Oil Wharf on a run-out tide, both tides at the end of the Third Runway, Trevally Alley, Bare Island bombora green marker, Sutherland Point and Henry Head.

From the shore I suggest Bare Island, Kurnell and La Perouse.

The trick to getting a few silvers is to have a steady berley trail and fish as lightly as the conditions will allow.

Peter Roberts fished from the shore at Brighton for six sand whiting, three bream and two flathead, all caught on chicken gut soaked in tuna oil.

Jorge Peters fished off the end of the breakwall at the mouth of the Cooks River for two mulloway to 5.6kg.

I caught flathead to 55cm, squid to a kilo, whiting to 49cm, trevally to 500g and the odd bream at Sutherland Point, the groynes at Kurnell and Towra Point.

In Port Hacking I fished South-West Arm, Gymea Bay and the back reaches of Yowie Bay for some stud whiting and dusky flathead.

Snapper to a kilo have been coming from the shore at Kurnell on pilchard tails. Peeled prawns have been producing silver trevally and drummer off the rocks at Maroubra and sand whiting have been caught on bloodworms off the beaches.

The rocks at the southern end of Bondi Beach are worth a shot for luderick, drummer and bream. Try using bread for berley and bait with striped tuna for the bream.

Stanwell Park and Garie beaches have been producing bream and whiting on a rising tide. Salmon and tailor can be caught on whole pilchards in the early part of the morning and you could try for the odd mulloway during the night.

The rock platform at Coalcliff is worth a shot for garfish on a rising tide. There has been the odd kingfish, salmon and tailor caught there on ocean garfish.

BRIDGE MULLOWAY

There have been a number of mulloway to around 5.5kg in the deeper waters of Botany Bay and around the pylons of the Captain Cook and Tom Uglys bridges.

They will also start to move upstream with the mullet schools and the luderick so you could try places like The Moons, Como and Alford’s Point bridges, Picnic Point and Cattle Duffers.

Those after a few flathead should drift small poddy mullet and yellowtail in the deep water off Towra Point, Brighton-le-Sands, wide of the Third Runway and along the edge of the shipping channel at Port Botany.

For soft plastics, try the shallow waters off Towra Point, Silver Beach, The Sticks, Foreshore Drive and the stretch from Dolls Point to the Cooks River entrance.

The luderick should be moving further up the Georges and Woronora rivers as the water cools. Nobody likes to say where they’re getting their weed so it’s best to look start looking where stormwater drains empty into the river.

Port Hacking always has a good population of luderick but it, too, will hot up as the water cools.

You will also start to see more larger leatherjackets around. I have been getting them off the shore at Warumbul in the Royal National Park. Make sure that you berley and use a small long-shanked hook baited with small pieces of squid or peeled prawns.

For drummer and bream I would try the rock ledges off Jibbon Point, Garie Beach and Stanwell Park.

Tailor, Australian salmon and bonito have been on the chew off the rocks at Coalcliff.